1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for handling a plurality of generally similar elements and more particularly to an apparatus for moving a plurality of irregularly shaped utensils, particularly knives, from a stored condition to a remote location in a prearranged or preselected manner and subsequently to deposit them in receptacles such as boxes, trays or other containers positioned nearby.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous prior art devices utilized to orderly remove uniformly or symmetrically configured objects from a container and deposit these objects at a remote location. Most of these devices deal with cylindrically shaped articles such as those resulting from the continuous cutting of pipe or other such material. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 2,159,851. Handling a cylindrical object is considerably less troublesome, since its circular nature results in predictable behavior as it is selected, moved and deposited at a remote location.
There is a distinct need to utilize automatic equipment for handling large volumes of irregularly configured objects such as plastic eating utensils. Packaged, ready to eat food for airlines and other forms of transportation as well as for retail outlets which require such objects entail a considerable number of people and a great deal of time to prepare. Certain devices have been utilized to assist in the handling of items of this nature (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,182) however, there appears to be nothing in the marketplace to automatically engage such utensils and ultimately position them in an appropriate receptacle in a sequential manner so that a moving endless array of such receptacles can be brought into proximity with the device to receive one or more such utensils without manual assistance.
The present invention has been developed to address the long felt need for automatic machinery to handle these irregularly shaped, high volume items.